The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two¶
Miller, G. A. (1956). The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information. Psychological Review, 63(2), 81-97.
Cited by¶
9 citations across 9 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Aggregation
- Aggregation bounds cognitive and computational load by reducing dimensionality—a function central to working-memory limits as Miller (1956) characterized in his analysis of "the magical number seven" and chunking as a strategy for tractable representation.
This sourceOrigin of chunking; recoding many low-information items into a few higher-order units expands effective working memory.
- Aggregation bounds cognitive and computational load by reducing dimensionality—a function central to working-memory limits as Miller (1956) characterized in his analysis of "the magical number seven" and chunking as a strategy for tractable representation.
- Category Retrieval Lock In
- The compression-decompression asymmetry: compression is cheap per use — one label fits in working memory or one tag in an index entry — while decompression is expensive at decision time, because the property list must be reconstructed and re-evaluated against the new use; this predicts that lock-in is heaviest where the property list is long and the label short.
This sourceEstablishes chunking, the compression of a property-rich item into a single retrievable unit that fits in working memory.
- The compression-decompression asymmetry: compression is cheap per use — one label fits in working memory or one tag in an index entry — while decompression is expensive at decision time, because the property list must be reconstructed and re-evaluated against the new use; this predicts that lock-in is heaviest where the property list is long and the label short.
- Channel Capacity
- In organizational design, span-of-control limits, the cohesive-group-size bound, meeting throughput, and communication adjacencies are bandwidth ceilings on coordination channels.
This sourceChannel-capacity treatment of working memory and absolute judgment, including chunking.
- In organizational design, span-of-control limits, the cohesive-group-size bound, meeting throughput, and communication adjacencies are bandwidth ceilings on coordination channels.
- Chunking
- Pre-chunk item stream.
This sourceOrigin of 'chunking': recoding a stream of low-information items into a small set of higher-order units expands effective working memory.
- Pre-chunk item stream.
- Cognitive Offloading
- The internal capacity constraint is working memory: multiplying two three-digit numbers entirely in the head overruns the handful of items a person can hold at once.
This sourceEstablishes the narrow capacity of working memory that makes multi-digit mental computation overrun the head.
- The internal capacity constraint is working memory: multiplying two three-digit numbers entirely in the head overruns the handful of items a person can hold at once.
- Hierarchy
- Simon's analysis and Miller's seven plus or minus two
This sourceOrigin of "chunking": recoding a long stream of low-information items into a small set of higher-order units expands effective working memory, the compression mechanism by which a recurring rhythmic frame is tracked instead of every individual event.
- Simon's analysis and Miller's seven plus or minus two
- Overshoot and Collapse
- In attention and information systems, information is beneficial to a decision up to the assimilation ceiling of working memory and processing bandwidth; past it, additional information becomes overload that degrades decision quality
This sourceFinite working-memory/processing bandwidth as the assimilation ceiling past which additional information becomes overload.
- In attention and information systems, information is beneficial to a decision up to the assimilation ceiling of working memory and processing bandwidth; past it, additional information becomes overload that degrades decision quality
- Rhythm
- This is a genuine compression: the recurring structure is stored once, and only departures from it need separate attention.
This sourceOrigin of "chunking": recoding a long stream of low-information items into a small set of higher-order units expands effective working memory, the compression mechanism by which a recurring rhythmic frame is tracked instead of every individual event.
- This is a genuine compression: the recurring structure is stored once, and only departures from it need separate attention.
Domain-specific¶
Verification¶
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